2 ruled off ballot for Feb. 25 vote

February 13, 2003|By David Mendell, Tribune staff reporter.

City Clerk James J. Laski likely will appear unopposed on the Feb. 25 ballot after the Chicago elections board ruled Wednesday that challenger William Dock Walls III did not have enough valid signatures on his nominating petitions.

Also knocked off the ballot Wednesday was former Ald. Virgil E. Jones, who was seeking to return to his 15th Ward seat on the Southwest Side. Jones was sentenced in 1999 to 41 months in prison for pocketing $7,000 in payoffs in the Operation Silver Shovel corruption probe.

Walls, who submitted 38,000 signatures, needed 25,000 valid signatures to appear on the ballot. The three-member elections board determined that his valid signatures fell short of that number by several thousand, said Tom Leach, a board spokesman.

A former aide to Laski had challenged Walls' signatures. Walls has 10 days to appeal the board's ruling to the Cook County Circuit Court.

Jones' candidacy, Leach said, was rejected for two reasons: He had insufficient signatures and he is still under court supervision as part of his sentence from the Silver Shovel conviction. Leach said Jones is ineligible to run because state election law prohibits felons from holding office while still serving their sentences.

The board had earlier tossed former Ald. Jesse Evans off the ballot for the same reason. Evans, who was seeking his old 21st Ward seat, also was convicted in the Silver Shovel probe.

Another former alderman convicted in the probe, Ambrosio Medrano, also filed to run for his old seat, in the 25th Ward. Medrano, who completed his sentence, remains on the ballot.

Absentee ballots containing the names of Walls and Jones have already been printed and mailed, but any votes recorded for them will not be counted.